For the love of basketball

Busy, busy here for us. Between school, work/furlough, basketball practice and games, futsal practice - it has been some busy days for us. Thankfully, none of us have caught the flu although I kept Nola home one day as she complained of a headache and her teeth hurting. By 11, she was turning cartwheels and requesting to go to school. Request denied. She then said it was so booorrrriiiinnnngggg at home. Check - sick days aren't suppose to be fun!

My dad was in the hospital the week for last. But he wanted to come see Nola's game and we had a great time. Dad tells me that some of his favorite memories are me playing basketball in high school (I was ok but nothing outstanding - just a steady player). Dad's health isn't improving so we are trying to spend some more time with him. This past Friday, I dug through some old boxes and found a cassette tape of the Concordia Lady Orioles playing the Wellington Tigers for the Championship game of the Lafayette County tournament from January 6, 1995. I then had to track down a cassette player! But I got both over to dad and we listened to the Orioles defeat the #1 State ranked Tigers 48-28. A senior player named Jo Hinck scored 17 (a bit unusual), but it was special to site and listen to it with dad. He really enjoyed it (as did I). We'll keep making memories!

Nola's YMCA basketball team.

Nola brings the ball down quite a bit. She has greatly improved with her dribbling and actually prefers to use her left hand despite being right handed.

With all those boys, it is hard for her to get off some shots (there are three boys that don't pass and just take it in every time). But - she did take this shot - it was in and out!

Looking for the pass from mid-court.

Chess pass in under the basket.

Looks - she can do bounce passes too!

Nola can read the court really well. A kid on yellow was doing the same shot on the right - so Nola figured out where they rebounds would go after the misses - allowing her to get several defensive boards. Way to use that brain, girl!

Hands up! Good defense, green! And kudos to Nola who still gets out there in the sea of boys. We figured out - there are six team (for about 48 kids) and there are only THREE girls. This is ridiculous but honestly, I don't know if I want Nola to play next year. It has been a so-so experience.

Tough Nola.

Brenner at Nola's game.

Matt and Nola - cuties!

Hahaha - the Parker butt chin! We laughed and laughed about this!

I walk outside to see this.......

....then I see this.......

.......Matt had made a sled with the kids. It has some designs flaws.......but the kids had fun.

Nola dressing up like mom!

Cold snap and flu

We had a cold snap, some snow, and school district shutdown because of the flu. Luckily, the kids haven't seemed to catch it (thank you, Lord!). The rest of the week was filled with futsal practice, basketball game, and game time at home. Not a lot of pictures but lots of fun time.

Brenner looking a bit shaggy (I gave him a haircut today but didn't snap a picture!). He was very excited to get a few extra days off of school this week!

Nola had an exciting week - see below.

Nola came home from school Wednesday and seemed out of sorts. I asked what was up and she said she hurt her arm during morning walk. So off to urgent care we went! Here Nola is waiting to get an x-ray. Note it was pajama day at school and we just didn't change!

Nola waiting for her x-ray - very serious! Luckily, I remembered that the mom of one of Brenner's soccer teammates runs the urgent care in the same building as our GP - and she was on duty so we saw a familiar face. No fractures but she agitated her tendon sheath. A couple days in an ace bandage and then all was well again!

Brenner worked hard this weekend to finish a Lego Star Wars Arrowhead (over 750 pieces!). Good job buddy!

I kinda detest school projects and every year the primary school has the kids do a 100 day sculpture. I tried to have a better attitude this year and helped Nola. She cut 100 "cool/neat" things out of National Geographic. Then we glued them onto a poster board. It turned out great!

Nola being goofy! She found her stuffed puppy Doodle and played a lot with him this weekend.

The doll house after Nola and her friend had a play date. I asked what was going on in the bathroom and they said kissing. I said that is the mom and dad right because those are the only people that should be playing kissy face. They assured me it was.

Nola's Martin Luther King Jr. Day workbook. They learned a lot and she loved telling us all about it. Now - if this statement was only true.

Back to School and the start of basketball

We all headed back to school and work this week. Overall, we are back in the routine and doing fine. Grade cards came out for the kids- they are both doing great but Brenner was quite upset on the B+ in science (because one assignment was a 4/7 and the point pool was low for the second quarter). Needless to say, we had a teaching moment. We also spent some time with my dad who isn't doing very well health wise. Please pray for him and my mom.

On Tuesday, we had some errands to run in Columbia. The kids had never been to HuHot Mongolian grill so I wanted to take them there. Brenner went through THREE times (that Parker hollow leg). Nola enjoyed the chopsticks!

Speaking of hollow legs....Matt was finally feeling better and said warm brownies and ice cream sounded good. I said that I could make the brownies but he would have to get the ice cream. I made a caramel brownie that was a hit with the boys (Nola doesn't like caramel but enjoyed the ice cream)!

Found this picture on my phone that Brenner took of Matt playing with KC!

Saturday was Nola's first basketball game. These are all kindergarten and first graders. I was sad to see the other team also only had one girl. What are the little girls in Boonville area doing?!?!?!?! Come on girls - you can do this!

Speaking of doing - here come the first two points of the game by little miss Nola.

And her reaction.....no gloating here :) The lighting at the YMCA is so crazy with the windows so the pictures aren't great in certain directions!

Nola taking the ball down court! There are a couple bossy boys who won't pass it to her but she held her own. They will continue to improve through the season.

The green team won 23-15. It was a lot of fun to watch and Nola enjoyed herself. She was especially glad that Grandma Val came to cheer her on!

Some of Brenner's work including the grade sucking 4/7 :)

Brenner doesn't talk about school too much since he doesn't really like his teacher, but it seems that they are doing a lot of different assignments. He has been more interested in his globe lately - maybe from the geography that they are doing!

Vocabulary and Language Arts work for B.

Some sweet writings from Nola. I really like how I am taller than Matt in the one picture - haha!

Nola's class also learned about money/coins.

....and lice. This is rampant in both of their school this year. Sigh. Two kids in Nola class. I don't understand why they don't do more checks but I think it has to do with chronic cases of a few families. So - we will keep checking both kids and reminding no sharing of hats, headbands, etc.

Christmas Presents

Happy 2018! Hope this year treats you well! We had a fast paced (and cold!) week. Matt and I spent a couple days at the spa (a-mazing!). Thanks to Grandma Val and Grandpa for watching the kids and KC. Matt and Brenner went hunting on another day while Nola and I went and got her new fish (a gift from mom and dad that we wanted her to pick out). I had a girls day with Grandma Val and Aunt Lynnie by going to the movies and lunch. Then we held low with Matt being super sick for a few days. Vacation is almost over!Most pictures are the kids playing with their presents. Thanks again to everyone!

Brenner making his crystals while munching on beef jerky.

Nola practicing setting with her volleyball (with beef jerky nearby!).

Snow man in the snow globe project - nice work, girl!

Brenner's first U-wing fighter. He has couple others to put together but his thumbs are still sore!

Nola watching her volcano explode :) Love that smile!

Meet Dock, Nola's beta. She picked him out and named him (no particular reason was given for the name choice). He is quite beautiful and she is really excited! Nola gets the photo credit.

New Years Eve was game time. I got killed off pretty quickly in King of Tokyo! By the smiles, can you guess who won?

Next up was Exploding Kittens. A pretty fun and quick game. We played is several times as well before watching a couple episodes of Fuller House. Yes - we are Party Animals. Didn't even bother to try to make it to midnight!

Found this in Nola's room. I love the way she is encouraging even in her writing!